


Fire Blossom

by theJesster101



Category: Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist
Genre: Character Death, Dystopia, Fantasy, Future Fic, Gen, Humor, No Romance, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-02 08:10:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theJesster101/pseuds/theJesster101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's way beyond any B.C. or A.D. in Victoria's time. She lives as a waitress who is trapped in the orphanage's grasp. One day, Rin Okumura, a transfer, moves into the boy's dorm. He has a strange mutation. He can burst into destructive blue flames. From afar, Luke Archer, a respected English businessman, watches over his pet project. 5 mysterious ship leaders stay in the shadows and control their respective ships with a diamond will. Can Victoria and Rin save the UK Ark in time, or will they, along with everyone else, die in ruins as the other countries come in for the kill?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Victoria's Secret (No, Not that Kind!)

     Victoria turned over on her graying, lumpy mattress. The bell the matron pulled would ring at 6:00, and anyone not out of bed by then would be taken to the Closet. She rolled onto the equally hare floor, and picked herself up. Maybe if she went early to the crowded mess hall, she would catch a glimpse of the new Japanese transfer kid everyone was talking about. She clicked her good steel arm into place and walked to the changing room.

* * *

 

     Victoria thought - no, she  _knew -_  that the girl's changing room at Houlster's Orphanage for Teenagers and Young Adults was the grossest place in the world. If the hair, grime, and unrecognizable objects strewn about didn't give the clue, the smell did. Even one of those 'hip' 14-year-olds who got their smell removed for a short time would surely gag on the oil and dust in the air. She dove into the one clean spot in the corner, and snatched her suit, before dashing out, gasping for breath. Victoria was ready to go and it was only 5:50. She had beaten her old record by 20 minutes. Not bad. At the mess hall, lines of dirty, ragged children crowded around the yuss bar, waiting for the watery gruel to be poured into their waiting hands. You could tell by their faces how long they'd been here. The ones with bright eyes and a cheerful smile hadn't learned yet. They averaged about 4 weeks at most here, before turning like the others. A kid cried out, "Ha! I'm leaving soon! My guards will pick me up! You'll see! They haven't left me here!" Victoria smiled sadly. Those were the ones who hadn't yet accepted that their guards had:

  * abandoned them
  * died
  * disappeared



     She sat down at one of the tables with her head in her hands. Yesterday, the tips were not enough to get her today's yuss tickets. She would simply skip the breakfast/lunch times. After a few minutes of staring down at the dingy plastic, a sound alerted her to another presence. Victoria looked up in time to see a boy sitting down beside her. He was the Jap Ark kid! Too tired to move, she gave him a smile which turned out more like a grimace. He smiled back. Immediately, most of the girls rushed over to the nearly empty table, trying to get to know him. 

     "I'm Okumura Rin. Rin's the first name. Who're you?" His voice was almost flawless with New Toranian. 

     "Tabitha. Tabitha Lattisburgh." At least that was her name before the  _incident_. "But I like to be called Victoria Evant." Rin nodded sagely, as if he understood. He replied, "Well, Miss Tabitha-Victoria Evant-Lattisburgh, would you like to -" Victoria choked, and laughed out loud. 

     "Just Victoria. Or Vicky. Whichever you prefer."

     "Okay. Well, Victoria, would you like to share my lunch?" She looked at him, confused. Rin repeated himself. "You see, that way, the next time we meet at mess, you give me half of your lunch. It goes both ways." After much arguing, Victoria gave in and Rin spooned her yuss into a spare bowl. He stared at his own meal. "Itadakimasu!" He exclaimed before downing the whole thing. She could only watch as he gulped down the entire dish of yuss - bones, sim-meat, and all. He wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "Sorry about that. I'm not used to the whole 'no-chopsticks allowed' rule." Victoria stared softly at her uneaten yuss.

     "The Japanese Ark. What's it like?" She asked. Rin stopped.

     "Well, it was only half city. The other was sim-ocean or farming. Like real food. The orphanage was on the outskirts of New New Kyoto, and it was beautiful. Everyday, there was a cooking festival and we handed out our products to the others, and we all went to sleep together, even the adults, and- and" Rin's voice broke off, and Victoria saw him in tears. "It was like  _home_ , y'know?" Of course, living the industrialized age of UK, she didn't but she still nodded her head for him.

     "So then why'd you transfer?" Rin's eyes hardened.

     "I made a mistake. I'd like to not talk about it." It was only then that she noticed the sharp canines, the pointed ears, even the dangerous looking eyes. They softened. "But, now, where'll I be working?"

     "I'll guide you. You'll start out as the dishwasher for the orphanage restaurant. I'm a waitress." She led him out by the elbow.

     "Great! Can I eat leftovers?"

     "Glutton!" Victoria huffed, and she smiled. They could be friends. Really good friends.

* * *

 

     Rin complained. About his job, why he couldn't cook, why his hands were cracked. One day, he complained to the cook. 

     "Why can't I cook? Please, just one meal?" The head chef shook his head. 

     "Okay, boy, take these. If you can make a good dish out of this, I'll give you a spot. If not, spend the rest of your dishwashing days in silence." Rin grinned. "You're on." The cook dumped a load of food into his arms. Rin looked at them. Sim-salmon, rice, some wilted horseradish, a wad of krawweed dregged from the bottom of the pool outside. Not much, but he could work with that. Victoria gazed on in amazement. He would be chopping up the sim-salmon one moment with a sharp butcher knife, torrenting the horseradish the next, and before five minutes had passed, Rin waved a platter in front of him. He smiled so brightly Victoria could've sworn he was sparkling.

     "Here. Try one." Carefully, he placed a sample of sim-fish and rice in his mouth and slowly chewed. His eyes popped.

     "Tabitha, was it? Take it out as soon as possible. Get a customer for it!" Victoria was shoved hard out of the kitchen with the dish place in her hands. She spotted a seated couple that looked rather boredly at their unappetizing hash and steak. She smiled, putting on her 'perfect Barbie hostess' face.

     "Would you like to try our new Japanese dish?" They perked up at the sound of foreign food. The man grinned. "Why, sure, I'm inclined to believe Nessie here would like it." He elbowed the laughing lady. Victoria put all the things - why were there so many little plates? on their booth table. Nessie looked at it. "How do you eat it?" Thankfully, Rin had informed her earlier on how it worked. Apparently, you put these yucky plant sticks in your hands and clap them together to eat food. Weird. He pushed ahead of her, and gave the customers his sparkly smile. "Okay, prospective eaters!" he boomed, "So, take the sticks in your hand like this," Rin demonstrated, "and now you control them by pushing your fingers together. Of course, if it's too complicated, you're most certainly welcome to use the spoons or whatever you use in England!" The couple shrugged. Nessie dipped the salmon-rice combo into the gray horseradish, and chewed. Her eyes lit up. "Hey, Roger, I haven't gotten a kick out of this ever since the Scottish ark came with their spiced haggis!"

     Roger groaned. "Nessie, that was the Chinese ark, and it was the rare ginger root tea, remember?"

     "Oh yeah! Whatever. It's spicy! By the way, who made this?" Victoria was just about to present Rin to them again, but the head chef pushed his way through

     "Madame, I did. Perhaps you would like another dish?" He held out the other sample Rin created. Victoria almost screamed in frustration. Stupid head chef! Rin made it, and she wasn't going to take that from  _anybody_! 

     "Actually, Rin made it." She pushed him in front of herself. "Why. Did you like it?" The head chef sent her a warning look, but Rin was already on a roll.

     "You see, the powdered horseradish mixed with water and a little bit of sesame or krawweed seed will create the gray paste. That's the spicy part. And the sim-fish is complemented by the blandness of the white ri-" The chef attempted a polite smile, and dragged both Victoria and Rin by their collars back to the kitchens.

     "Tabitha! What are you doing, saying that the boy made it? You're supposed to make  _me_ look good, not him!" He turned to Rin. "And you, boy. Get out! I don't want to see you again here! Leave! Now!" Rin looked like he was about to argue, but instead quickly slunk out. Victoria thought she saw a flicker of black behind him. "Tabitha, you can follow him." She left, too. Nobody wanted to deal with him on an empty stomach.  **Oh great** , she thought to herself.  **Out of work, even at the orphanage, just got my new friend kicked out, too, what to do now? Burn a building?** She would have to think of that later, after dealing with the matrons.


	2. New Start

     "Yo, Vic!" Rin waved her over to their yuss table. "Guess what? I got us a stall at the Snivey Market!" (A/N: Pokemon reference, everyone) Victoria gasped.

     "You did WHAT?" she screamed. She stalked over to him and shook his shoulders. "What do you think you're doing? You're going to get killed out there with the other vendors!"

     "Well, I made some stuff for the orphanage caretakers, and *bam*, they told me to use their stockholder place at the market for a food stall." Victoria relaxed. "Now, we just need to buy the food stuff. Vic, can you buy these items when you go for shopping? Here, take the savings I had from the other restaurants I worked at." He shoved a few hildens into her hands. "I'll need: the English recipe book, eggs, salt, pepper, butter, flour, sugar, whole milk, heavy cream, sim fish, fresh rice, oh yeah, the rest of the stuff I needed yesterday. I have all the other equipment with me." He winked. Victoria's jaw dropped. 

     "Rin, you expect me to buy all that from memory? You're crazier than I thought. Write it down when you have time, loser." She sat down at the table grumpily. A piece of paper was pushed roughly at her. She took it. When she unrolled it fully, it was little over two feet long. "And you want me to buy it with  _this_ much money." She dangled the coins in his face.

     "Actually, here's the rest." He gave her a knitted coin pouch. It was bulging with hildens and nakirs. "Thanks. This is enough for..." she mentally calculated the costs,"all of the food and 5 nakirs more. By the way, where'd you get it? You don't steal, right?" She shot him a suspicious look. Rin pretended to be hurt.

     "Of course not, Vicky, why would I do that? I just made some more food than I needed to, and sold it outside." Victoria sighed in relief. "Whatever, Rin. Bye!" She gave him a satirical kiss goodbye over her shoulder and paraded out the door.

* * *

 

     "That's just like Rin. Wanting crepes when they just ran out, using soda instead of seltzer in the cake, jeez." Victoria pushed around the noo-cart, looking or the hintcode she needed for dry ice. She felt distinctly uncomfortable, with the other shoppers staring at the mountain of hintcodes stacked up and her raggedy, fraying clothes. She finally maneuvred it to the check-coder, and dropped all the coins into the funnel. Then, she scanned all the codes, and checked out. The change of nakirs flew out the bottom funnel as the items dispensed from the ceiling-draper in their respective packaging. She lugged them into her dimension-bag, and left. Rin had given her an address of hardware store, too? "This is goint to be a long day." 

* * *

 

      After getting even more money from Rin for the hardware stuff, she almost flew over to the bustling Snivey market. It was overflowing with classy people in real-fur jackets and sunglasses checking out perfect fruit or scrumptious pastries. Victoria felt extremely out of place, mingling with all the rich people. She hurried over to Lot 14, their stall space, and looked around for Rin. He was standing in the shadows, waiting for her.

      "Rin, I got the hardware stuff." He pulled out the graten-generator from his dim-bag, and some other things she couldn't recognize, along with a deep fryer and a torrenter. She, in turn, pulled out hammers, nails, and some sim-wood.

      "I went for rustic design. Mahogany finish, checkered shade, that kind of stuff." Rin, in a flash, was next to her, rummaging through her dim-bag. He dragged out the beams of wood, and immediately got to work. Victoria pulled up her sleeves and joined him. It was tiring work, but in an hour, Rin had set up the stand. Victoria handed him the checkered fabric that she had pre-sewn, and he slipped it over the joints of wood. Their fancy sign read 'All Foods: You Know It, We Have It'. He started on connecting everything in the vast plates of wood behind the front, and created a book stand from the scrap wood Victoria had. The English recipes book was the main book, but Victoria got the French, American, Chinese, and a few others as supplementary. Rin skimmed through them frantically, before snapping them shut and shoving the oven under the first plate of wood. Then he put a rice cooker on top of it. Next to the cooker, a stove sat, and a deep fryer, as well as the aforementioned torrenter, he also had the tools laid out: a grater, sharp knives, scoops, spatulas, etc. Three dry ice coolers came after that. When everything was said and done, it was already 4. They didn't have to wait long, though, before their first customer. he was a portly, balding man, with a kind face. 

     "I'd like to have some of that American burger and salad, laddie," he said, referring to Rin. "Get me a soda, please, too." Victoria retrieved a Mintgreen from a cooler while Rin chopped, fried, sauteed, and strained. After a few minutes, he placed everything on a plastic tray from the stack next to the front of the stand, and Victoria finished it off with beverages and condiments. She put at the front, and waited for the man to take out the money.

     "That'll be 6 hilders and 5 nakirs, sir." Victoria stated. His face twisted.

     "Lassie, this is Snivey market. If this place was anywhere else, it'd be at least 20 hilders. Are you sure you want me to pay that little?" Victoria shook her head vigorously. 

     "OK, then 10 hilders." He took out a dim-wallet, reached inside, and grabbed a fistful of bills. He found a 10-hilder bill and counted out a few nakirs for good measure.

     "Thanks, lassie, and by the way, the name's Kane. Larry Kane." After he left, the customers started flowing in. Victoria rushed to and fro holding armfuls of beverages, as well as the occasional flyer. Rin was a sight to see, his hands a blur. Their stack of trays was noticeably depleted, so she started pulling the rest out from under the plates. She also bargained and haggled with the customers until they reached a price too cheap for the customer and too pricey for her. At the end of the day, she pulled the checkered shade over the stall opening, and closed the curtains on every other side. It was 7. Rin slid down to the floor, slick with sweat. He smiled tiredly.

     "Well, Vic, that was fun, but don't you think we'll have to hire another cook?" 

     "Sure, maybe Hanna, she's always shown an interest in that. We could steal her from the Moon Deli." They both laughed at the thought of the head chef's rather bulbous nose turning burgundy again. 

     "Probably. Talk to her about it when you get to the girls' dorm, 'kay?"

     "'Kay." Victoria pushed herself up, and followed Rin, who was limping down the deserted Snivey Market. "Did you know that we earned...over 200 hildens today? Not to mention the nakir tips?"

     "Don't tell the orphanage caretakers. Just give them about 80. They'll be satisfied." 

     "At this rate, we'll be rich!"

     "At this rate, I'll be a professional chef!" She laughed. 

     "I'll have to make a dim-wallet for both of us soon."

     "Ooh. I've always wanted a wallet that would be a portal to another dimension, where my miniscule amount of money could be stored endlessly." Cue another burst of laughter. 

     "I like you Rin. I really do. But just don't call me Vic."

     "Sure thing,  _Vic_." Victoria ran after Rin, spasmodically twitching from angry laughter.

     "I'm-gonna get-you some-day, Rin-you just watch-out!"


	3. Success is Succulent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victoria and Rin's success at Snivey Market is undeniable. So much that they need another cook. How will they get Hanna?

     "Yo, Victoria, I need some more stuff, 'kay?" Rin handed her a list of hintcodes for her to bag while going for orphanage shopping. 

     "Sure. I'll get some dim-fabric, and maybe make those wallets on the way here." Their threadbare pockets were nearly bursting with the new flooding of revenue. While the orphanage still claimed about 100 hildens every other day, their income was at least 500 a day. Silently, they bought better fabric, more comfortable sheets, stuffed animals for smaller children. Rin even had the audacity to offer another child some of his onigiri for free. She waved back at him and walked over to the hintcode store. Since they had expanded their repertoire of food, she had even more hintcodes to buy. The check-coder nearly choked on some of the items, there were so many. She left for Snivey Market.

* * *

     Part of their success was that they were cheap. No matter how wealthy they were, anyone liked cheap, good stuff. So they flocked to their stall. Rin had changed the sign a day ago. They were well known enough so that they could just put their names on there. Now, in flowing script, it read 'Victoria and Rin's'. Their checked fabric now decorated the bottom, while dark blue satin curtains framed the booth. The sim-wood plates were now used as decoration; their back was a thin, strong material called 'gaurt'. It was obsidian colored, with flecks of purple. The stove had been upgraded, their generator less noisy and more efficient. Everything was better. But that didn't change the fact that there were simply too many customers. Rin nearly had a panic attack afterhours one day. He had been working nonstop for at least 4 hours, and the influx of recipes in his head didn't help. Victoria needed help. Fast. And she knew exactly where to find it.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Remember, Rin is a chimera project in this fanfic. So no Satan, but since it's a chimera project, he still has all the demonic features: eyes, teeth, tail, and ears. And Kurikara still houses his powers, but it's because they release the hormones he responds to. This is a steampunk fiction where the UK and all the other countries have fled the galaxy for safety from the black hole.


End file.
